Volunteers trying to block limits on feeding homeless

They're rushing to get enough signatures for petition calling for law's repeal

Updated 8:00 am, Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Photo: Michael Paulsen

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Regina Eco, center, and other volunteers with Noah's Kitchen prepare food for the last time at Jenni's Noodle House on Sunday, pending success or failure of a petition to overturn a new homeless feeding ordinance.

Regina Eco, center, and other volunteers with Noah's Kitchen prepare food for the last time at Jenni's Noodle House on Sunday, pending success or failure of a petition to overturn a new homeless feeding

James Johnson, center, receives what may be his last sack lunch from a volunteer with Noah's Kitchen at James Butte Park on Sunday.

James Johnson, center, receives what may be his last sack lunch from a volunteer with Noah's Kitchen at James Butte Park on Sunday.

Photo: Michael Paulsen

Volunteers trying to block limits on feeding homeless

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With just days left before the city's restrictions on feeding the homeless take effect, an opposition group is hustling to collect enough signatures to repeal the law.

At least two charitable groups, meanwhile, have decided to stop feeding the homeless because they do not want their actions controlled by the city.

Free to Give Houston, a recently formed political action committee, needs about 28,000 registered voters' signatures to trigger a charter amendment election in November. The group sent out 30,000 letters last week urging voters to sign the petition.

Houston attorney Paul Kubosh, who formed the committee with his brother, Randy Kubosh, said the ordinance is an example of local government overstepping its bounds and ignoring the will of the people.

Adopted by City Council in April, the ordinance requires written permission from property owners when individuals or charitable organizations feed five or more homeless people on private or public property. Enforcement begins next week, and violators face a misdemeanor charge and a fine up to $500.

Mayor Annise Parker, who promised earlier this year to address the city's homeless issue, says the ordinance is intended to improve coordination among charitable organizations and to know who is responsible for cleaning a site if trash is left behind.

Parker originally offered a more restrictive proposal that was hotly debated during public hearings. The mayor declined to comment on the petition.

Enforcement fears

City Attorney David Feldman said the only approved way to challenge the ordinance is by referendum.

A petition with 12,362 signatures would have to be submitted within 30 days of the ordinance's passage or any time prior to the effective date. The deadline for the latter is the end of this week.

However, Paul Kubosh said residents can seek a charter amendment under state law, which trumps the city charter. As a result, there is no petition deadline, he said, and the opposition plans to submit a petition by July 30.

Kubosh helped to lead a successful challenge against the city's red light camera program two years ago. The program was repealed by voters in November 2010.

Backers of the current petition drive argue that public property is owned by citizens and therefore they shouldn't have to ask the city for permission to use it.

"We have a huge problem asking the city for permission to feed the poor," said Manuel Sanchez, a volunteer with Simple Feast, a church ministry.

The charitable group feeds the homeless twice a week.

One of its regular sites is James Butte Park, where volunteers eat with the homeless to try to build relationships with them. But now the group will give them books, sunscreen and bottled water rather than food, he said.

Sunday will be Noah's Kitchen's last day of feeding the homeless, partly because it has lost half of its volunteers since the ordinance was adopted, said volunteer Chris Carmona, The organization has fed the homeless every other Sunday at various locations for about four years.

"Many people are afraid," said Carmona, who is working on the petition drive. "They don't know when or how it will be enforced. They don't want to put themselves at risk."

Refusing to comply

Another charitable group supporting the petition, Food Not Bombs, says it will continue to give vegetarian food to the homeless but won't comply with the law, said volunteer Nick Cooper. The group feeds the homeless four days a week at the downtown library.

Cooper and Sanchez said their groups have no immediate plans to register with the city's charitable food service program as required by the ordinance.

Registrants must agree to work with program coordinators in scheduling and siting of feeding events, follow basic standards for food preparation and handling, have at least one person at the feeding event who has attended the city's food safety class, and remove litter.

Individuals who attend free monthly training classes receive a certificate good for five years.

About 15 organizations have expressed interest, but only six have completed the registration form, said Patrick Key, the city's bureau chief of consumer health services.

So far, the city has approved only one feeding site, a city-owned vacant lot at the corner of Franklin and Chartres, Key said.